Hey 320 Windrider:
Not to be argumentative, but I think your info is a little misleading to be fair. Osama (Quality Assurance), Mohammad Qassimi (delivery) and Ibrahim Mohammad (Engineering) have verified that no further planes were coming from TLS this year. One option is coming in late September and there may be another option to receive one from an airline that MAY not take delivery, but the second one is not our plane yet.
The 3-4 planes a year until 2012 is also pure conjecture. There is nothing on the books to suggest this.
Now having said that, in my 4 years here, nothing goes by the books. In 2004 we were supposed to have 6 planes by the end of 2009; today we have 15! If other opportunities, like Vueling, come up I am willing to bet the company will gobble them up. And while it is fully possible and probable that we could get another 2 planes this year and maybe 3-4 the next few years; no one has so indicated. Rumors and conjecture, but nothing official.
As for upgrades, well guys you know when we get planes, pilots also come in the door. Captains that is! I have been flying with F/Os that have completed their assessment and have been put on indefinite hold. Training is overloaded and the company needs to get the Captains on the line. Currently they are set with F/Os but Captains are unbelievably short. We all are flying max and while guys are making a whole lot of money, upgrades have all but come to a stop. The reason is simple. A current Captain on the 320, will only take a PT, PC and a few bounces in the plane to get on the line. 2 sim sessions! So the company can get 3-4 Captains on the line for the same amount of sim time to upgrade one F/O. Also the line time for a seasoned Captain will be but a fraction of the line time for a first time Captain.
It has been this way every summer since we started (and I’ve seen them all.) About October-November we should be caught up with Captains (assuming we don’t add frequency and new cities like we are currently doing.) At that time the F/O sim backlog jam should start clearing out like Emirates Road after midnight. But just like Emirates 311 it will be jammed again by April or May.
I don’t want to be argumentative, but I also want to present facts as best I know them.
B&O